LAKE >> A falling leaf doesn't know where it goes

LAKE - "Don't Give Up"

(K Records, 2009)

I saw LAKE at the AllWays Lounge in April last year on a whim, after checking out their songs on iTunes and being struck by the simple, heartfelt beauty of "Don't Give Up." (Note: It's not a Peter Gabriel / Kate Bush cover.)  Why is LAKE able to pull off this kind of song when so many bands fail at it?  How does a 5-person band create enough space between notes for the song to breathe and have that elusive, magical, "breezy" feeling?  If the word LAKE were an acronym for something, what would it be?  Late August Kumbaya Echoes?  Love Always Kills Evil?  Low Altitude Kite Enjoyment?  Exactly.

It's one of those songs that you just have to love, no matter what type of music you're into.  And you'll want to tell everyone, even your parents, if only to show them that hey, you do actually listen to some "normal" music.  LAKE did indeed play this song at the show, so I was glad I went.  I got some mediocre pics, so I won't post them.  I believe they also did their haunting, autumnal, rather stunning song "Gravel".  The small crowd was very loud, and the band kept having to shush them.  They even had to stop playing a particularly quiet song, and went onto another one instead.  Mild-mannered lead singer Ashley Eriksson was really peeved when that happened.  Drummer / keyboardist / backing vocalist Lindsay Schieff coolly stepped to the mic near the end and sang a song or two.  (I believe she sings "Gravel.")  They did lots of instrument-swapping throughout their set; in fact, the only bands I've ever seen do as much swapping during a performance were ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead ('98), Indian Jewelry ('08 & '10) and Tortoise ('98).  Portland seems to be a really talented area when it comes to music, and I would in fact call it a hotbed of music.  Coincidentally, I had seen another Portland band, YACHT, earlier that same day; they played for free at Tulane's main outdoor quad.  See a synth-tastic clip here.  I mentioned this to a LAKE member and he was surprised that he hadn't known about that show, and said "We're good friends with them."  In summary, there's no logical reason why LAKE is not one of the biggest bands in indie pop.  According to K Records' website, LAKE have "recorded 12 full length albums (only 3 of which have seen proper release)."

In honor of the band's name, here's a(n uncropped) photo that I took recently right behind NOMA (New Orleans Museum of Art):

If you know my love of swans, you'll know that I immediately made this my computer's desktop image.  A similar photo of two swans taken here in City Park has been my cellphone's "desktop" pic for around 5 years.

I was actually planning on posting a song called "The Sea" by the band I'm about to talk about, but you'll see why I'm not gonna.  However, you can download it for free here.

Wed. Oct. 24: I decided to go see Brooklyn band EXITMUSIC at Circle Bar in NOLA, even though I was not blown away by them when they opened for School Of Seven Bells in April in Baton Rouge.  (I will spell their name Exitmusic from here on out, just because.)  I wanted to see them as headliners, especially since they have a new, well-received album under their belt.

Detailed chalkboard marquee outside the bar

I hadn't been to this place in two years, and it had been shut down for most of that time for renovations and for not having a valid music license.  Anyway, it now finally has air conditioning, and the ceiling has been raised, but it's still the size of a large living room.  The opening act, local singer Miss Mec, was good in an old-fashioned, laid-back, Cat Power kind of way.  Her music is often described as "Cajun reggae."  She and a guy played for a while at low volume with no drummer, and got a good response from the crowd.  They did a cover of "Moody River," and ended with a cover of "A Change Is Gonna Come."

Mec did a slight faux-pas by telling us "Exit Wounds are up next, you guys. They're awesome!"  She quickly caught her error and corrected it, and made a quip about Samuel L. Jackson.  (I just looked up that movie and he's actually not in it, meaning it's one of about 6 movies from the last two decades that he has not been in.)  So everything was just dandy so far.  I'm chilling out in NOLA at one of its coziest, coolest little bars, about to see an up and coming band (whom I generally describe as "a darker Beach House") for 5 bucks, and there's even A/C now.  Little did I know that I was about to see the biggest meltdown I had ever seen from a band...

Exitmusic tried to do a soundcheck for a good while (I found out afterwards that their van had broken down), and the guitarist was getting a bit irked.  I should mention that back in April, they had a live drummer, but this time they didn't.  The walls were rattling, and there was a problem with the vocal mic'ing.  It didn't help that there was a very enthusiastic heckler bellowing obnoxious things when the singer was trying to warm up.  He finally said loudly "This isn't a sound system, this is a shit system!"  This was after he had said something like "This place is a joke."  The bartender shot back "Thanks for choosing Circle Bar!"  The guitarist growled back "Did someone just say something?"  I don't know if he knew that it was the bartender who had said that to him.  I took a brief video clip, but didn't want him to smash my camera or something, plus I was still holding out hope for some more songs, so I stopped filming.  Here's a verbatim quote from my clip: "I don't know why we got booked here to play a fuckin' show that we can't play... It just, uh... It doesn't fuckin' work."   Anyway, the guitarist announced to his bandmates that they would try to play 2 or 3 songs and then leave.  This was apparently news to said bandmates.  After several uncomfortable minutes, they played the beginning of "The Sea," then restarted it and played it all the way through.  Everything was rattling in the building, but at least they finished it, and the crowd cheered louder than you would think such a small crowd could.

They then played "The Modern Age" and got another big cheer.  I was actually a bit irked that the crowd was cheering so loudly after the club had just been disrespected, but I was happy that the show was getting underway.  But then things took a drastic turn for the worse as the guitarist literally screamed "My wife has the most beautiful voice in the world and you can't even fucking hear it!"  (I know that's a verbatim quote from "My" up to "world," and the rest is probably verbatim too.)  The club's booker, a really nice, mild-mannered guy named Jason Songe, walked up to him in a friendly way and talked with him.  He must've thought Songe was the soundman because he argued with him about the acoustics.  The singer appeared to be on the verge of tears, and she was definitely trying to keep the show going, but her husband was clearly on the warpath.   (I did not film any of this part.) I was wearing an Unwound shirt, and the word on my shirt felt pretty appropriate for what was going on.  I mentioned to the singer that I had seen them recently, and that I liked their final song at that concert a lot ("Sparks Of Light"), and asked if they could maybe just play it acoustically or something.  She seemed agreeable with that concept, and said "Yeah, we always finish with that song."  And they started both shows with "The Sea," for what it's worth.  But it never happened, and the band slowly took down its gear.  The bartender (I talked with her afterwards but didn't get her name) eventually found the band members when they were on this side porch area and said "You guys have got to leave."  She later told me "We were really excited about this show!  We promoted the hell out of it."  She said how much she loves her club and that she was not gonna let anyone disparage it.  So yeah, Exitmusic lived up to their name.  It was easily the biggest meltdown I had ever seen.  I had been chatting with this genial older couple next to me at the bar who said it was their first time ever coming to this place.  I really doubt they'll ever come back.

If a tree falls in a small forest and no one hears it, did it make a sound?  If no one hears about what happened on this night and the band gets off scot-free, would that be right?  On the other hand, do I want their career to be destroyed because of one dismal night?  Well, no.  What I have a problem with is the fact that this incident was kind of like if you went to see Wham! and Andrew Ridgely was being a dick, while George Michael was being professional and trying to get things back on track.  What I'm saying is, a person can destroy an artist's career by giving a biased summary of what happened, but in this case, the thing that would kill this band's career would be if someone had simply filmed the entire event from start to finish, with no narration or anything else.  In other words, with no critical opinion or bias involved.  The simple, unedited footage would simply stun club bookers across the country/world.  But as far as I know, no such footage exists, so the band's career is in no jeopardy.  To play devil's advocate, imagine you are in the band Exitmusic on the night of October 24, 2012.  You have van problems, then arrive at a club with that has an admittedly non-amazing sound system and lacks a soundman, then you get accidentally introduced as Exit Wounds by the opening act, then you get heckled while warming up, and you realize only a few dozen people have even shown up.  Would you be in a bit of a bad mood?  Of course.  But the first concert I ever saw at Circle Bar was Lubricated Goat, in March '04.  Including the bartender, there were FOUR people in the building, but the band played a set for us and didn't complain one bit.  That's called being professional.

I should mention that right when Exitmusic decided not to play any more songs, the jukebox began blasting David Bowie's "Let's Dance" at a much louder volume than I had ever heard any jukebox ever play before.  I cracked up at this song choice, and assumed the bartender had selected it, but she said it was just the next song up in the queue.  But it was still great to have a dour band chased offstage by such a bouncy, kinetic song, sung by someone who is presumably one of their idols.

Anyway, I'm glad I got to see two songs, and I commiserated with Miss Mec afterwards.  She is seriously one of the nicest, realest people ever, and I predict big things for her.  She told me she was singing with a Black Keys-ish band called Strange Roux the following week at the Carousel Bar.

Look at the body language in this poster and ask yourself which band member was probably the self-absorbed one and which was probably the sweet and apologetic one:

Hint: The nice one had a side gig acting on HBO's series Boardwalk Empire.

So, I very sarcastically dedicate LAKE's "Don't Give Up" to Exitmusic on several levels:
1.) Both bands are fronted by a married couple.
2.) Both have capitalized, one-word names.
3.) Both played shows in small clubs to approximately the same size crowd (~20 people) in New Orleans.
4.) Exitmusic gave up on their show, whereas LAKE did not, even though LAKE's lead singer was sick and Exitmusic seemed to be in perfect health.
5.) LAKE don't need extreme volume to get their songs across, because they are so meticulously sculpted that they'd sound good with loud amplification, acoustically, or anywhere in between.  Perhaps Exitmusic's songs are too, but I doubt we'll ever find out.

By the way, the bartender told me that Exitmusic donated the entirety of their cut of the money to the opening act.

Thu. Oct. 25: I went to Euclid Records.  Amazingly, the only other customer in there was a girl who had been at the show last night, but I didn't say anything to her.  I got a spare copy of The Lucy Show's awesome LP ...Undone for only a dollar.

I don't want to go into too much detail on it, but that night I had to call 911 for the first time in my life after an incident of road rage was directed at me.  Maybe more on this after I decide what kind of legal action to pursue or not pursue...  Another example of a simple unedited video clip being all that is needed to settle a dispute, and in this case, I do have a video clip of the incident.  The police officer to whom I showed the clip told me he'd "tear this guy a new one" if he ever got a hold of him.  Which, considering the extreme and violent stuff that cops see in their daily line of work, should tell you something about what happened.

Sat. Oct. 27: A severe cold front moved in, dropping the temperature from about 85º to about 60º. Rather than going to the ludicrously expensive Voodoo Fest in N.O., I went to a free festival called Houmapalooza.  ("HOE-muh-pah-LOO-zuh.")  The bands played on the steps of the Terrebone Parish Courthouse.  I skipped the first 4 bands but saw the others.

The first band I saw was a Houma pop/rock band called Autumn High.  They could become sort of Cranberries-esque or Sundays-esque if they develop more dreamy melodies.  Their singer has a ridiculously pretty, operatic voice, as can be heard in their new single "Jester".  If she can rein it in a bit, she could become literally the voice of Terrebone Parish.  They closed their set with that song.  Ocean Of Storms played a riff-heavy set.  Meta The Man were the undisputed highlight, and I got several video clips of them.  They were the main reason I went.  I had never heard of them until that afternoon, and after checking out their album on Bandcamp, I decided they were worth seeing.  They seem to be influenced by the overall aesthetic of At The Drive-In, with the addition of some progressive, artsy stuff.  But don't worry, they sound nothing like The Mars Volta.  Their keyboardist even played some noise cello (really) at one or two points.  I bought their CD afterwards for $5, and found out they're from the small town of Norco.  Outpost 11 were a full-on '80s metal band from down the road in Cut Off, home of the Cajun cannon, Bobby Hebert.  They had a drum riser and an underdeveloped fog show.  After allowing myself to let go of the pretentious music snob in me, I was able to enjoy them for what they are.  In true James Hetfield fashion, the singer began each with an enthusiastic "This next song is called ___!"  An old lady next to me lent me her Saints blanket after seeing I was shivering.  She exclaimed about one of Outpost 11's songs, after the singer announced that it has been getting play on 92.3 FM: "I liked that one.  Reminded me of Nickelback."   The only New Orleans band on the bill was next.  I, Octopus played an energetic instrumental set, with the Jazzmaster-wielding guitarist introducing each track by saying "This song is about sports," "This song is about bees," This song is about flowers," and so on.  I think he was antagonizing the crowd a bit.  It was very cold, and Voodoo had sucked away most of the music fans in the region, so the turnout was low.  The final band, Chaos Of The Cosmos (yes, lots of cool band names at this event) churned out some mediocre party rock.  They had two go-go dancers in front of the stage who also did some hula-hooping, and lots of little girls from the crowd joined in on the hula-ing.  It was pretty entertaining.  I should also point out I met a tremendous lady who is directing a documentary called Art On The Bayou, about local bands and artists who exist outside the sphere of Louisiana influence.  I'll be first in line to see it whenever it comes out.  And I wandered into a new art gallery and talked to a lady there who seemed interested in showing some of my art.  I also met I, Octopus' drummer and his girlfriend (wife?).  I've long thought of them as the Brangelina of the N.O. post-rock / indie rock scene, since if you don't see them at a show, you know it's not a cool show to be at.  He also drums for some other local bands.  So it was a pretty interesting day.  I stopped in at the only cool Houma music club, The Boxer & The Barrel, but a local band that I don't like was playing, so I bailed and drove home.  I have to say I can't believe I almost missed out this crazy day just so I could go see Silversun Pickups and Justice at Voodoo... Not that it would've sucked, but it would not have surpassed the peripheral things that I experienced at Houmapalooza.

Mon. Oct. 29: "Frankenstorm" hit the New England area, and conspiracy theories abound as to whether or not it was engineered by the gov't to give Obama a boost in the polls right before the election.  (See: HAARP.)  Sorry, but a snowstorm and a hurricane intersecting in late October, one week before the election?  The gov't. allowed Pearl Harbor (this is 100% fact) and 9/11 (about 90% sure) to happen, so this Frankenstorm thing doesn't surprise me at all.

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Planets with similar climates: Papas Fritas - "Way You Walk" (2000), Ben Folds Five - "Smoke" (1996), Velour 100 - "Stare Into Light" (1996), The American Analog Set - "Gone To Earth" (1996).